Bonilla testing for Skip Barber Race Series

Watkins Glen, NY - Gerardo Bonilla has added more work to his 2011 professional driving repertoire in the form of test driver duties for the Skip Barber Race Series.

Most recently, Bonilla tested the Skip Barber Formula 2000 cars at Watkins Glen International for Skip’s Regional Summer Series, in addition to his duties as a data analyst for drivers who add that service to their weekend. “Greg Strelzoff was our only customer for the intensive data day on Thursday, so the staff asked if I would spend time on test driver duty to help with car equalizations and fixes. It’s a great job to have by any driver’s standard, so I couldn’t pass it up,” related Bonilla.

Bonilla also tested for Skip Barber at the recent Skip Barber National races at Virginia International Raceway in late April. At that event, the cars were fitted with the latest specification BFGoodrich R1 competition slicks. Bonilla likes to point out how much the slicks change the character of the Skip Barber Formula cars. “It basically makes the car a lot like other much faster, and much more expensive formula cars like the Star Mazda and Atlantic cars. You get the satisfaction of driving into the corners with ridiculous amounts of entry speed, then carefully decelerate the car with just the right amount of brake release. It’s really awesome, frankly!” commented Bonilla.

This coming weekend Bonilla puts on his coach’s hat for driver mentor duties for the USF2000 National Championship presented by Mazda at the Night Before the 500 race at Lucas Oil Raceway in Indianapolis. Bonilla added, “The USF2000 kids are pretty awesome. Lots of fast drivers and really strong teams. What a cool series Dan Andersen has put together, and a real treat to be asked to coach for all the drivers. It’s like Skip Barber on steroids. It’s really cool.”